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In the hundredth year of the British Broadcasting Corporation, historian Simon J. Potter looks back over the hundred year history, asking if the BBC is really the 'voice of Britain', and what comes next for British public broadcasting.
2022 marks the centenary year of the British Broadcasting Corporation. As Britain's most famous and influential broadcaster, the BBC faces a range of significant challenges to the way it operates, and perhaps to its existence, from the government but also from a rapidly changing media environment. Historian Simon J. Potter explores the hundred year history of this corporation, drawing out the roots of these challenges and understanding how similar threats - hostile politicians and prime ministers, the advent of television - were met and overcome in the past.
Potter poses the question 'Is the BBC the voice of Britain?', exploring its role in changing wider culture and society, promoting particular versions of British national identity, both at home and overseas. The BBC has long claimed to speak for the British people, to the British people, and with a British accent, and Potter explores how far these claims have been justified with this exciting new study which covers the establishment of the BBC Empire Service and the World Service, and focuses on people, programmes, and politics to understand the Corporation's engagement with changing ideas about culture and society in Britain, including issues of class, gender, and race.
About the author
Simon J. Potter is Professor of Modern History at the University of Bristol. His previous publications for OUP include News and the British World: The Emergence of an Imperial Press System, 1876-1922 (2004), Broadcasting Empire: the BBC and the British World, 1922-1970 (2012), and Wireless Internationalism and Distant Listening: Britain, Propaganda, and the Invention of Global Radio, 1920-1939 (forthcoming, 2020). As well as his scholarly contributions, he has also written books, articles, and reviews for a general readership.
Summary
Does the BBC represent the voice of Britain? Historian Simon J. Potter explores the hundred year history of the British Broadcasting Corporation, illuminating the significant impact that the BBC has had on the social and cultural history of Britain, and on how Britain communicates with the wider world.
Additional text
Potter's book This is the BBC can best be seen as a summarising study of the abundant BBC literature, with a special focus on broadcasting's international function.
Report
In just over 300 pages the author gives a comprehensive history of the BBC and also provides much in the way of analysis of the relationship between the broadcaster and state. David Harris, Radio Listeners Guide 2023
